yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Xperia Arc General] se_dude:
Thats pretty good if you ask me. And the battery should only get better after the initial cycle.
[Xperia Arc General] STV2:
Greetings! What now with reboot? Problems it is completely solved by means of card formatting? Other people too have solved this problem? It is possible to buy safely phone?
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Yeah, it certainly gives my other phones a run for their money. Most people would have to be actively trying to drain their battery to not get a day's use out of it.

As someone mentioned the non-Japanese model(s) may not have the problem at all, but here's an update on the situation:

The rebooting has -not- been fixed with the memory card format. Infact, it's restarted once even without a card inside.

It may be hardware related because 3 times now it's rebooted after pressing the power button once to turn off the screen. Aside from this, the pattern still seems completely random.

Also, this could be a coincidence, but it usually reboots when idle (it's never turned itself off while playing music, and I've been using it for hours each day as a music player). Still no response from Docomo or SE on the matter, but I've confirmed more people having the same problem and at least one other person couldn't solve the problem by formatting their MicroSD externally.
[Xperia Arc General] se_dude:
ISnt a hardware problem. Has to be software. And I think its Googles fault, the rebooting problem they perceived with the Nexus S.

Btw, can you tell me hows the sound quality via earhones?
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Some of you may remember my comments on the Elecom TPU case I had on my phone in the speaker test video (I said it had an annoying sticky feel), and I didn't like how it covered the power button which I use regularly for locking the screen.

So... I replaced it with this ray-out case. It has soft plastic sides (comes in different colours), a solid clear plastic backing for showing off your back cover and comes with a decent screen protector. Same design as the iPhone bumper so it may or may not scratch your back cover over time, but that doesn't bother me much since that part can be easily replaced.

The Elecom case had nicer (read: more accurate) cut-outs for the buttons and ports, and whether or not you'll like having a coloured opaque trim on your phone will be down to personal taste, but I like the new case much better. The plastic's finish feels good in the hand too. Fit is very tight and secure so it happens to fix the squeaky battery cover problem too.

Photos attached for anyone interested (I know ray-out usually don't sell their cases outside of Japan but I also know that hasn't stopped people importing them in the past :cool:)

Now I'm just worried about scratching the transparent window on the back... :D

Edit: Attachments don't seem to be working.

Link instead.

Edit 2: To protect the protruding SE logo on the battery cover from scraping against the case I used a hole punch on an old screen protector to cover it.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
+ Sound quality in general from the hardware is, as expected from SE, slightly better than average. It's hard to quantify though. For enthusiasts, an external amp will still improve things greatly, and again if you listen to music with a lot of bass you'll want a headset with larger drivers.
[Xperia Arc General] STV2:
I understand that the firmware update yet not as a new phone? What writes SEUS?

Please tell us the new information.
[Xperia Arc General] george232:
Any word on official accessories? I'd love to have a docking station for this device.

p.s. I hope the situation in Japan will change for the better and you and your fellow contrymen won't suffer any more harm!
[Xperia Arc General] Ravanelli:
Hmmm it seems have a good battery life.....

But still not convinced 'bout it, waiting for Neo maybe it has better battery life due to smaller screen :D

Tq anyway
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Neither SE Japan or US has replied to my enquiries. I'll post here when they do. No updates yet but another member mentioned an upcoming (several weeks?) update to 2.3.3 as a possible fix.

No Arc-specific official accessories released here yet, but the handset does support SE's Live View accessory.

A dock has been announced for the Play (see here) but I don't see the Arc getting anything similar because it doesn't have the metal contacts for it. It's a shame, I would love a dock too.

P.S. I'm not actually Japanese, but yes the situation here for the people affected is terrible indeed.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Still no reply regarding the restarting issue, so I decided to give SE's Japanese customer support a call earlier. They said they'd get back to me on it, but they didn't know about the issue (although I'm sure I'm not the only person who's reported it).

That aside, the lady on the phone confirmed that the Japanese model is indeed different from the model they will release overseas, although she couldn't say how or what was different exactly.

After doing some digging, apparently all Arc handsets come under the X12 product code, but the working codename for the international model is "Anzu", while the domestic models are dubbed "Azusa" and "Akane" for the W-CDMA and CDMA-2000 models respectively. Something else interesting; photos show that the "Akane" Japan-only CDMA-2000 model (IS11S on KDDI au) will be slightly thicker, support osaifu-keitai (NFC), IR and possibly one-seg TV too. I feel cheated :rolleyes:

Edit: This CDMA-2000 model -will- have one-seg TV, and due to the extra components the back is flat rather than arc-shaped. So much for the name.

Edit 2: Actually the name will be Acro, not Arc. Makes sense. Also the "Azusa" working name may be for Docomo's domestic model, not their current one.
[Xperia Arc General] hansbkp:
Could you tell us something about the 3G reception quality and browser speed ?

Is it onpar with other devices such as ip4 and SGS or ...
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
3G reception is pretty irrelevant, Japan is completely different from the rest of the world, and the network hardware in the Japanese Arc isn't the same as the European one. In any case, Sony Ericsson always does pretty good on the networking part.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
What Ambroos said :)

A comparison with the local SGS (running 2.2) on the same carrier may give some indication though (not so much the IP4 because here in Japan it's on a different network, one that happens to suck badly in terms of network speed and coverage).

The reception over here is practically the same. I took them both out for a walk and on the subway before, and there was negligible difference in signal strength whenever I checked.

Browsing speed with the default browser is slightly faster than the SGS on most sites, practically the same on a few others, and a hair slower on one or two. It's probably just a Gingerbread thing though, and the differences weren't really significant.
[Xperia Arc General] Ninsassin:
The rebooting issue might not be exclusive to only this phone. Didn't a while back the Nexus S have rebooting issues? Not sure if that was totally fixed in an update. But hopefully it's a software issue.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Yeah, this was brought up a few times before, and the Nexus S problem was fixed with the 2.3.3 update. :cool: Hopefully it's the same issue, although the Nexus S problem seemed to occur mostly during calls while mine tends to only occur when idle. No restarts during calls so far.
[Xperia Arc General] STV2:
You want to tell that a problem in new version 2.3 of the Android? It not a problem with hardware? It will not be necessary to return phone in service?
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Honestly, I have no idea. It's possible but you'll have to wait for an answer on this one.
[Xperia Arc General] darkelphos:
Hi! I'm selling my desire HD for the poor battery life is very short life for me.

The Arc battery is better than DHD?

The Arc battery is better than SGS? Talking with a friend with sgs seems that the battery of sgs is enougth for me.

Thanks :)

Enviado desde mi Desire HD usando Tapatalk
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
It's been a while since I've owned a DHD, so I can't give an accurate comparison... although I can say that at the time (almost 5 months ago), I thought the DHD's standby battery drain on the stock ROM was abysmal. The Arc's battery isn't spectacular but it's much better than the DHD if I recall correctly. It should be too, considering it's running 2.3 with a larger 1500mAh battery.

And... from what I've seen it's definitely comparable with the SGS. I can go from 8am to 9pm on a single charge even with several hours of gaming on the SGS and the Arc may actually be better (not sure yet).
[Xperia Arc General] darkelphos:
Thanks enough for me.

Enviado desde mi Desire HD usando Tapatalk
[Xperia Arc General] kitsVA:
Question about dialer Picture display

Does the picture ID display like on current X10 ROM which I personally think is the best implemention among any OS or ROMs. I like how it fades instead of displaying like a square with sharp edges.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
I don't know about the X10's visual caller-id, but it sounds similar .On the Arc the picture comes up as a large backdrop with a vertical gradient which fades to nothing. It's very slick looking and much nicer the usual thumbnail, although one thing I don't like about it is how it makes some of my contact's photos look weird (e.g. it crops off the top of their head etc).
[Xperia Arc General] piercewei:
Thanks so much for all the info you posted. It's a useful reference for the people who has great interests in Arc.

Concerning the reboot issue you mentioned, I have asked a SE guy on a local BBS. (Im in Shanghai). He answered that it is most likely to be a software issue and could be easily solved by SW updated. Hope this is helpful.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Great news ;) We appreciate the info.

SE still hasn't gotten back to me.
[Xperia Arc General] kitsVA:
Thanks for the information. That sounds like it's similar to X10. Yes, the cropping is different and you will have to change those contact pictures.
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
Is tethering/WiFi-host mode there by default?
[Xperia Arc General] resetoriginal:
hey, so i have an atrix, and im on the fence about it, and i was hoping to get your opinion on the arc vs the atrix, if it would be worth to switch to it or just stay with the atrix.
[Xperia Arc General] xilw3r:
well if you would like to hear my opinion, i say the atrix's only advantages are:

processor and the ram.

the design, beautie... even gingerbread are all in favour of the arc. so yes its a tad old hardware, but still, enough for pretty much any1 right about now.
[Xperia Arc General] resetoriginal:
yea i agree on all those points which is why im on the fence, im past my return time of 30 minutes calling time* so im just going to do a trade lol

as for the ram...well, from what you mentioned it does have 512mb of ram, but only about 320 is left for the user, and to be honest, this 1gb of ram on the atrix has never been shown on my device....im lucky if i get around 350mb...if i power down the phone and start it agian i generally get about 400mb of ram but then after a few hours it slowly goes down to the low 300's.

anyway, thanks for the opinion, much appriciated, and hopefully within a few weeks ill be playing with an arc myself:)
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Not on my device, but Docomo may have disabled it for now because they haven't launched their tethering plan yet (around +$50(!) per month) :rolleyes:

I don't have an Atrix, and assuming you've read all the other threads on this topic, all I can do is give a summary based on what I've read. Correct me if any of the following is way off.

+ The Arc is noticeably slimmer, lighter weight, has a larger and better (colour reproduction/brightness) screen and perhaps a better UI too. The last point will depend on your preferences, but judging from comments about the Atrix I'd say at least the Arc lags less. I'm not really a fan of motoblur but I know some people like it.

I've also read complaints about multi-touch on the Atrix being inconsistent and freezing etc. when playing games with dual onscreen joysticks.

The camera and the speakers on the Arc are unquestionably better, if those matter to you.

Gingerbread is an advantage for the time being, but I can't see the Atrix not getting it eventually.

- The Atrix, with the same usage pattern, should last longer on a single charge due to the larger battery (1930mAh vs 1500mAh) and smaller screen.

Also, the Tegra 2 in the Atrix will out perform the MSM8255/Adreno 205 in pretty much any situation, particularly when it comes to games. If you enjoy gaming on your phone you'll probably want to hang on to your Atrix, if only for the better framerates and HD textures. This is not to say you won't have a good selection of games on your Arc, since Sony is pushing gaming on their Xperia Play, which has the same hardware.

It's just the visual experience you'll get with Tegra 2 optimised games will be better.

As far as the CPU is concerned, I've yet to see any real life differences with productivity applications on dual core vs single core phones, but there's a good chance this will change in the future.

In general the Atrix is superior all round when it comes to the hardware, and it also comes with double the RAM and much much more internal storage (I've already filled the internal storage of my Arc up, but it's mainly due to a few bloated apps that don't yet support being transfered to SD. It's not hard to get around with stuff like Apps2Ext, just a little annoying).

The Arc is by no means badly built, but due to the very slim frame and thin battery cover it'll feel a little more flimsy than the Atrix.

I also said the Arc has a better screen overall, but the Atrix's screen is higher resolution and the improved pixel density may make reading books easier on your eyes.

That's all I know. Someone's gonna have to help me here :cool:

Personally I say go for the Arc if you want a slim, good looking and well designed phone and the Atrix if you want a powerful and somewhat more future-proof one.

I'm curious about why you'd want to switch though.

Edit:

Just thought I would add that my Arc has on average 100mb of RAM free. It's never really dipped below 50mb.
[Xperia Arc General] kaatisu84:
I got one, too!

hey, been reading these threads for ever but never posted before - however I got the arc on Saturday on pre-order.

regarding the rebooting - been using for 3 days now (average usage) and not a single reboot - so i guess it must be a SW issue, u downloaded any random apps?

but one thing i have noticed, and i am wondering if you have notice the same.

the screen brightness, it sometime changes a little while using. going from light to a little darker, then back to lighter again. not massive changes, but noticeable.

have you experience the same? is this a SE thing? i have just moved over from the HTC magic so i am new to xperias.

other than that, wicked phone and dead sexy!
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Glad you're enjoying your phone :) Good to know the rebooting isn't affecting everyone too. I'm fairly certain in my case it's not 3rd party app related though, since I've managed to get it to reboot after a factory reset with nothing reinstalled to it.

About your screen, I've never noticed anything like that on my Arc.

Could it be the ambient light sensor adjusting your brightness? I don't have the setting on my phone but it should be in your display settings, if you have it.
[Xperia Arc General] resetoriginal:
well, my reason for wanting to switch isnt because my atrix is slow or anything, in fact its really fast....but the screen, in terms of colours looks a bit dull, (coming from an iphone 4 owner)

the camera is better on the arc, which is a bonus for me, but not a huge deal breaker

speaker performance is pretty important to me, and hearing its better is a good thing.

i also love the design of the arc, and the larger screen is great for me since i do enjoy watching movies on my phone. i wouldnt know how life is with motoblur since the moment i got the phone it has had launcher pro running, and im more than likely going to have the same setup on the arc.

as for battery...im not sure if the atrix will outlast the arc, despite the smaller sized battery, im getting about the same amount of time on the atrix as i did with my iphone 4, and to be honest, it might actually be a bit less than that so i probably wont notice.

as for the higher res screen, yes text would techincally look better, but i dont read books on my phone, and i ussually zoom in to read websites so i cant say i've taken advantage of the higher resolution screen.

gingerbread is one of the main reasons im wanting to switch, but also because of sony's current change. to be honest, im impressed. they are pumping out android phones with the latest OS, not to mention upgrading the x10 which i thought was left in the dust. so in a way it gives me the impression that they learned from past mistakes, and they show it by making timescape less intrusive.

so that sorta sums up my reasons, i've enjoyed my time with the atrix but, something just feels like its missing, and design wise the arc is just to beautiful for me to pass up lol.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Fair enough :D I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
[Xperia Arc General] se_dude:
100 mb free ram at bootup? Whaaat? :O

Can you go to system properties and check how much ram is there?
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Sorry I wasn't being very clear. I meant it's the average I have left during normal use ie. with a whole bunch of applications and widgets in the background.

At bootup it's not much better at around 140mb, although you should bear in mind all my widgets and on-boot services like Swype take up over 100mb by themselves.

There's also a lot of junk which I need to root the phone to get rid of, for example the Startup Guide which still runs in the background for some weird reason, taking up 12mb, and SE's HDMI process which takes another 12mb.

I have no idea how SE figured it would be okay to launch so much unnecessary crap in the background when they give you so little memory to work with in the first place. What's funnier is how Android seems to kill SE's home launcher before it kills things like the Startup Guide when you're low on memory during multitasking. Some messed up process priorities there. :rolleyes:

The Arc has 512mb total memory, but it's shared with the GPU. System info. shows 320mb available for use.
[Xperia Arc General] george232:
Can you choose another color than blue for the launcher?
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
Nope, the blue on the launcher and in the system menus is not customizable as far as I know. It's Sony Ericsson's main colour theme they're trying to use through their whole phone line-up.
[Xperia Arc General] refract:
Huh ? We can't use our own wallpapers ?
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
You can, but it doesn't change the background in the menus (settings for example).
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Well as it's been mentioned, you can't customise the colours in SE's launcher, but it's easy enough to install a different home launcher like LauncherPro if you want a bit more control. It won't help in all the menus though.
[Xperia Arc General] Focal86:
Thought I'd share but I just bought the Arc here in Denmark yesterday, the Nordic version,

and so far no restarts like Shutterspark has reported in the japanese model.

I'll keep an eye on it though, just in case and report back if it does.

It's only been up and running for about 14 hours now and I'm just loving it. :D
[Xperia Arc General] resetoriginal:
jealous

sold my atrix today and i now play the waiting game with rogers lol.
[Xperia Arc General] Nankov:
Same here man :) i sold my x10 a while back, got DHD in the mean time but returned it as i was very dissapointed with some things and i am patienly waiting for the Arc to be released by Rogers...i keep checking every day lol it should be any day now.
[Xperia Arc General] jerrytea:
same here, I hope it's this week.
[Xperia Arc General] HYPER-X10:
Do rogers sell phones unlocked?
[Xperia Arc General] kaatisu84:
Just wanted to let you know, got my first random reboot today. I noticed it happen while my phone was on the desk doing nothing!

Has there been any word from SE about this? I hope they can fix with a simple update.

Didnt the nexus s have same problem? Fixed with an update to 2.3.3?
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Thanks for letting us know.

Still no word from SE. The Nexus S did have something similar and it was reportedly fixed with 2.3.3, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Edit: So far it would appear it's only the Japanese model that's being affected, or at least no one with an overseas model has come across it and reported it yet.
[Xperia Arc General] masi0:
Thanks for this review - I am considering now to get Arc for myself - can I install apps on external memory with Gingerbread? internal 512mb is not too much :(
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
Of course, since Froyo (2.2) you can install Apps on your SD!
[Xperia Arc General] masi0:
in Froyo not all apps were compatible with it this some part of the app stayed on internal mem as well :(
[Xperia Arc General] Blomkungen:
It depends on the apps

Not the android version

Any modern and update app should be able to have installed on the SD card
[Xperia Arc General] masi0:
Is it worth to move from iPhone 4 to Arc while there are some minor bugs in the phone (sensors, reboots, battery life, etc) ?
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
The iPhone 4 is different, because of iOS. Just stick with your iPhone 4 if you prefer iOS over Android.
[Xperia Arc General] Fake.Guy:
I got mine Xperia Arc Blue ;) It's Amazing !!!
[Xperia Arc General] Nankov:
I dont think they do, but you can get it unlocked for $20 in sites like http://www.mobileincanada.com/
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
I like the iPhone 4 for it's out of the box battery life and relatively bug free environment, but if you want more freedom to do what you want with your device and a bigger screen you don't have much choice :cool:

The minor bugs aren't a big deal if you ask me, they're nothing that can't be fixed pretty easily. If you like the look of the Arc then go for it. The bigger question is if you want Android.

Edit: And I wouldn't worry too much about the Arc's battery life. More recent testing with less intensive usage (3G, Gmail/Twitter/Weather and Contact sync. on, 5-10 emails, 1 call, around an hour of browsing, sporadic chatting on Gtalk and 30 or 40mins of other activities like light gaming with the screen on) has now left me with 37% after over 19 hours. It's really just the screen.
[Xperia Arc General] Nimche:
Is it on 850 3G frequency?
[Xperia Arc General] im_iceman:
Wow - That's good - better than x10..
[Xperia Arc General] kuroneko007:
Hi, nice thread and lots of useful info.

Slightly more Japan-specific: Can you use S-Mode (and a @docomo.ne.jp address)? What about emoji and deco-mail?

You've mentioned a few times that you would need to root to change X and Y, have you managed to root it yet?

Sony have stated that the new Xperia models will come with an unlocked bootloader IF the phone is sold without a simlock. I know the Docomo version is (still) simlocked, but have you checked to see whether the device responds to Fastboot, as stated by SE:
[Xperia Arc General] Lancez:
Just started flashing my x10a last night again and had no idea how great the GPS is. My primary phone is Samsung galaxy s and the GPS is pure crap, takes forever to get a lock. Hopefully the Arc will outperform x10a :)

@batman

flashed Z's FreeX10 and works a treat, had to flash back to older ROM then update via SEUS before flash FreeX10 :p
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Still no root.

SP Mode works fine, it'll come loaded with Docomo's own SP Mode Mail application (the same one they've put on all their other Android devices so far) and it supports emoji and deco-mail just like a feature phone would. You get the @docomo.ne.jp address too of course. :cool: